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Humanities Courses

For Waldorf, Public, Private, and Home Schools

Jamie York Academy offers online programs in the Humanities including Shakespeare, Parzival, and The Art of Poetry.

David Sloan

Quick Look At Humanities

4-week intensive developmentally appropriate courses, or “main lessons”, and year-long Spanish Classes.
Click on the courses below to learn more.

High School Humanities Courses

World Geography

The course description will be added soon

Academic year offered:

Comedy and Tragedy

The course description will be added soon

Academic year offered:

Ancient Civilizations: The Mayan World

This exhilarating journey will encompass the remarkable contributions of the Maya in various domains, including their sophisticated number system, intricate calendar, profound understanding of astronomy, awe-inspiring architecture, advanced agricultural practices, and captivating religious myths.

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Contemporary Latin America through Art and Culture

In terms of history and modern world around them, the 10th/11th grader begins to question not only what happened but also how and why. We will investigate how Latin American culture became what it is today.

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Shakespeare

Four hundred years after his death, the genius of William Shakespeare has never burned brighter. In this course, we will examine the ground-breaking role of Hamlet and why he has been called “the first modern individual.” We will consider some of the agonizing questions Hamlet must grapple with that still perplex us today.

Academic year offered:

Literature

This course will read the delightful novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress while also studying the historical context of China in the 20th century. Students will appreciate this tale of friendship and young romance while learning about Mao Zedong, the Communist Revolution that led to the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Great Leap Forward in 1958, and the Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. The book was also made into a film in 2003 which was directed by the author! We will discuss this transition from novel to film, what is gained and what is lost.

Academic year offered:

Modern Society

This course will look at the complex issues facing our world today. We will explore the political, social, and economic forces that impact life everywhere on the planet. A deep dive into various governmental and economic systems will help students make better sense of our interdependent life on Earth. One of the highlights of this course is that the students will be placed into teams for a formal debate.

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Spanish Classes

This course focuses on gaining skills through applying the language to daily tasks and students’ interests. We are not simply developing vocabulary, but are aiming for functional Spanish that the students will actually use.

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In Your Own Words: An Introduction to the Art of Poetry

Why is it that people turn to poetry in times of greatest joy (weddings, births, tributes) and greatest sorrow (funerals, illnesses, catastrophes)? Poetry can be a distillation of people’s most secret longings, private losses, public celebrations. To that end, each night students will read several assigned poems—mostly from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—and come prepared to discuss them in class.

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Parzival: Every Question Contains a Quest

For decades the story of Parzival has been a signature course of Waldorf eleventh grades around the world. At first glance, Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival is a Medieval tale of knightly valor, composed in the early thirteenth century. However, if we plunge beneath the surface, we may discover mysteries and revelations much more relevant to modern life — to our own life — than we might imagine.

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Revolutions: American, French, and Latin American Independence

“The Revolutions” is an iconic Waldorf main lesson for 8th and 9th grade students. We study what happens when change occurs in an abrupt way and the resulting historical consequences.

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Humanities Tuition

Tuition for the courses is $95/week
($380 for a 4-week Block, or $285 for a 3-week Block)

What to Expect

What to expect from our humanities 4-week main lesson courses

Workload

As an intensive main lesson block, students are expected to spend a total of about three hours per day on their studies.  This includes attending class, reading assignments, and doing written work.

Live Sessions

The daily live sessions are critical for developing human connection, and for engaging in genuine conversation with your classmates.  All of our humanities main lessons meet live with the teacher for one hour, four days per week.  Enrollment for these classes are expected to be between ten and twenty-five students.

Recordings

For some classes, in addition to the live session, the teacher may record a short presentation.  These recordings are general fairly short (between 5 and 25 minutes).  Our policy is that these recordings do not include students.

Friday Group Meetings

Some of these main lessons meet in a small group of students (without the instructor) on the one day that the live session with the teacher does not meet.

Assignments

We will provide assignments for the students.

Parent Meetings

The instructor will lead parent meetings in order to answer questions and coach the parents on how to best serve their role.  There will be three parent meetings: on the Wednesday before the block begins, and then on the Wednesdays of the first week and third week of the course.  All parent meetings take place at 6pm MT (which is 8pm ET, 7pm CT, and 5pm PT).

Course Reports

We will provide a course report at the end of the course.

Financial Assistance

We have limited funds for offering financial assistance to families.  You can fill out our financial assistance form to request this.  This form must be submitted and approved before you enroll (both registration and payment).

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Enrollment is Open!

Register for our Waldorf-based, rigorous online homeschool math, science and humanities courses.

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